Heat generating devices, such as power semiconductor devices, may be coupled to a heat spreader to remove heat and lower the maximum operating temperature of the heat generating device. In some applications, cooling fluid may be used to receive heat generated by the heat generating device by convective thermal transfer, and remove such heat from the heat generating device. For example, jet impingement may be used to cool a heat generating device by directing impingement jets of coolant fluid onto the heat generating device or a target surface that is thermally coupled to the heat generating device. The impingement jets are created by forcing coolant fluid through one or more jet orifices. Additionally, jet impingement may also be combined with two-phase cooling, where the heat generating device is cooled by the phase change of the coolant fluid from a liquid to a vapor.
The geometry of individual jet orifices, as well as the arrangement of the jet orifices (i.e., a jet orifice pattern), affect the cooling performance of the cooling apparatus. Additionally, different heat generating devices may produce different heat fluxes, and may have different hot spots or zones that need to be cooled by precise impingement of the impingement jets. However, a significant amount of time and cost must go into designing and building prototypes to develop the optimum jet orifice geometry and jet orifice pattern for the various cooling applications.
Accordingly, a need exists for alternative jet impingement, two-phase cooling apparatuses that reduce the time and cost of evaluating jet orifice geometries and patterns.